Bird Bath Peep Show and Bird Seedy, 2006-08, video installations
Bird Bath Peep Show, 2006, video and tele-immersive video installation, Modified Arts Gallery, Phoenix AZ
Birdbath Peep Show and Bird Seedy are two projects that reconsider and rearrenge the voyeuristic past time of bird watching through fabricated digital video installations. To create the video, a birdbath, filled with bird seed, is placed in a garden. The birdbath is equipped with a web camera that captures a close-up view of birds eating the bird seed. For Bird Bath Peep Show, this video is then streamed and projected onto another birdbath in a gallery. The resulting video sculpture thus creates a tele-immersive experience shared between the viewer and the birds at the remote birdbath.
Tools, scripts, software, equipment and ephimera:
two birdbaths, web camera, two pc desktops, streaming video, projector, portable DVD player, stainless steel basin, bird seed
Video Documentation
Birdbath Peep Show from Sarah Hatton on Vimeo.
Images of Bird Bath Peep Show
projections onto the bird bath
birds, web cam, and bird bath in the garden
Images of Bird Seedy
My friend Becky Stern and I were super lucky to present some art in a show called Lighthouse in downtown Phoenix at the historic Alwun House. I presented Bird Seedy. The show was full of self-illuminated art and a couple if video pieces. Bird Seedy uses a portable DVD player hidden in a trough designed to look like it is filled with bird seed. Peering out are the birds in the video and it looks as if they are pecking away at the real bird seed.
view of the Bird Seedy Trough
View of the Bird Seedy trough from top
a bird (on the right) pecks at the bird seed
A bird can be seen on the left of the screen
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